Level 99 Relic, Mythic, Empyrean, and WoE Weapons

[Belmonts]

What confuses me is that since Camate is saying that the two ramifications of weapons (with and without afterglow) will end up together at some point, it means that all the final R/E/M weapons version will have afterglow?, or afterglow will be lost when ppl upgrade their weapon?

[Kyte]

It's not that confusing.

After enhancing Relic, Mythic, and Empyrean weapons via the new upgrade path, an afterglow effect will be applied to each one.

[Kincard]

I have mixed feelings about the announcement. The prospect of shiny new stats on the weapons through opening the augmenting slot is very interesting, but anybody who has looked into it will know that obtaining an afterglow is an insanely difficult-to-achieve goal. Making it so that any weapons going beyond +242 skill have Afterglow will only result in one of two situations:

1. The difference between the two paths (non-afterglow and afterglow) will be close to or as crazy as the original Trial to obtain an afterglow (which varies greatly in difficulty anyway, because Empyrean afterglows are nearly impossible to obtain), and the vast majority of RME owners will just not bother.

2. The difference between the two paths is large, but not nearly as large as what the original Afterglow trial, and anybody who bothered doing the Afterglow Trial before now will be annoyed.

Afterglow was always a fluff goal, mostly there for obtaining a unique graphical effect on your character nobody else has. I'm aware it has a sphere buff attached to it but I doubt a single Afterglow owner in existence right now obtained it for that buff. I think a vanity item like that being barred behind some crazy grind wall should stay that way- nobody's ever been denied a party because they didn't have an afterglow. This is without mentioning the fact that imagining seeing lots of afterglows running around looks kinda silly.

I think what the dev team is currently planning won't satisfy anyone by the way. The Afterglow trial is so absurdly time consuming that even half of it would seem absurd to most players.

After thinking about it for a while, I have a couple possible ways of dealing with this.

1. Keep both an afterglow and a non-afterglow version of each RME for the future, but untie the non-afterglow version from Trials of the Magian so that the non-afterglow can get whatever expansions in the augmented item stat space the devs were/are planning. In other words, once you upgrade beyond the +242 skill stage, obtaining an afterglow will no longer be possible. I'm pretty sure if someone isn't planning on working on the afterglow trial right now, they will not mind in the least that they won't be able to in the future.

2. Add one last stage where getting Afterglow through Trials of the Magians is available, (so no silly upgrade cost gap on this stage) and simultaneously add another quest where the two paths merge with the idea you're planning right now, opening the door for the future augmenting plan. Right now a lot of people are frustrated because they haven't been able to use their RMEs for months, and having a simple upgrade to the next stage so they can use it in Reisenjima for a while can calm peoples' nerves. How effective this idea would work depends on what the dev team has planned for the hypothetical freed augmenting space- if it's going to be stuff like "Attack +5" I don't think people will care that much.

3. Just keep the system the way it was before. It would prevent the addition of new stats, sure, but it's not like you can't make them decent weapons by playing with the stats they already have. (Or by replacing/overhauling useless ones like the Murgleis Convert Augment)

[Zekander]

Not to mention the fact that they already did exactly that when they upgraded them all to 119. There are REM weapons at level 99 with and without Afterglow, and there are level 119 REM weapons with and without Afterglow. So obviously they already bypassed the magian trial flag once.

As for the workload, they could have easily made the quests identical simply with differing rewards, instead they made a conscious decision to force players to farm 250 very rare items in order to even start the upgrade to a usable level.

[Grekumah]

I’d like to answer several of your questions about the upcoming upgrades to Relic/Mythic/Empyrean/Ergon weapons.

Now I'm left with a dilemma, two choices.
1) Finish my one billion + afterglow before the update
2) wait until after the update and reward high end gamers a few mil to finish this new trial if it is battlefiedl/NM based. . . . .

Ultimately this is up to you to decide. We can’t provide specific details on the new steps at this time, so waiting for the upgrades to be implemented is completely your decision. As stated previously, players that have already obtained weapons with an afterglow will have an easier time upgrading to the next phase.

I don't think I fully understand. It sounds like you're pushing an upgrade that no-one (Afterglow users and non-Afterglow users) is going to be happy with because it'll be cheaper and quicker?

Players that already took the time to complete the afterglow effect on their weapon(s), will be rewarded by being able to upgrade in an easier manner through a quest.

We estimate that players with afterglow weapons will be able to upgrade within one hour of starting the quest. Even if you didn't spend the time to create a weapon with an afterglow, we're still offering a method to obtain an afterglow and continue the upgrade process on these legendary weapons, but you’ll still have a great task ahead of you.

How is all of this going to work with Ergon weapons, which don't have an Afterglow path?

Is there some kind of currency we should try to be saving/gathering as we approach February?

As you mention, Ergon weapons do not have an afterglow effect. Players seeking to upgrade their Ergon weapon will have to clear a number of objectives along with the other players who do not possess a weapon with an afterglow.

If we were to provide the methods for upgrading Relic/Mythic/Empyrean/Ergon weapons this would certainly affect player behavior, and as such, we cannot offer this information yet.

[dasva]

As you mention, Ergon weapons do not have an afterglow effect. Players seeking to upgrade their Ergon weapon will have to clear a number of objectives along with the other players who do not possess a weapon with an afterglow.

If we were to provide the methods for upgrading Relic/Mythic/Empyrean/Ergon weapons this would certainly affect player behavior, and as such, we cannot offer this information yet.

If ergon users are going to have to go thru a bunch more work like the non glowers are you going give ergon afterglow though?

[Rakshaka]

If we were to provide the methods for upgrading Relic/Mythic/Empyrean/Ergon weapons this would certainly affect player behavior, and as such, we cannot offer this information yet.

This means that the means to upgrade non-afterglow weapons to afterglow weapons is currently collectible in-game. Or, at the very least, we're able to do some steps in preparation for the update at this time. Some ideas about what we can collect NOW to upgrade this include: potpourri(merit points deposited at the goblin), job points, silt, beads, and Tumult's Blood.

Does anyone have any other ideas about what we could be collecting now for this upgrade?

If the amount of work I am going to have to put in to upgrade my mythic to its 'final form' approaches afterglow, then I think that's it right there. Hanging it up, closing my accounts, finding something new to do with my life.

Or, just don't upgrade it if it's too much work, and keep playing as you always have. Think of this final upgrade not as another free REM upgrade, but as an equivalent of an afterglow upgrade, because that's what it is really. This may very well take as much time and effort as it did to make the original afterglows; don't go into this expecting anything less.

[Alhanelem]

Frankly I hated the absurd difficulty of afterglows when the originally came out and had hope they would be nerfed. If it's so extreme that you needed 2 upgrade paths to begin with (e.g. being able to upgrade to afterglow either first or after upgrading non-afterglow to max), it was too much. Knowing that I will need to face some kind of super extreme upgrade path because I didn't have a billion gazillion gil (or enough time on my hands to kill arch dynamis lord 78234683274 times) really puts me off. I shouldn't be forced into doing the work of an afterglow to bring the basic stats of the weapon up to snuff- I already put countless hours into making just the non-afterglow weapon.

Make seperate paths for afterglow and non afterglow, or don't do it at all. Or, make the difficulty the same for everyone and when you're done, award the afterglow or nonafterglow version of an item based on whether or not they had one when you started. I don't understand why this can't be a quest variable instead of part of the item data.

I'm sure everyone here would have gladly waited longer for the fairer method. Am I really far off base here?

[Jerbob]

Exactly. What was the point in providing two paths in the first place if they're going to combine them now? I don't want my weapon to glow, I just want it to be better than a weapon that drops from a mob that costs 50,000 accolades to pop.

Please give us two paths. If I'm going to have to complete a "Great Task" for something I don't actually want then I doubt I'm going to be even remotely motivated to do it.

Appreciate the information updates, Grekumah.

[Ranky]

Originally Afterglow was an option that players had the option of partaking in and was considered to be an activity for a very dedicated individual (considering items needed for any of the Ultimate weapons was 1 drop at a time, 2 if lucky). Now with this update, like many have stated, the "option" has been removed due to a convenience factor for developers still set to program an older game. Not only is this being a factor pushed to everyone, the fact that realistically no information on the upgrade process is given which is completely ridiculous due to affecting "player activity" changing is strictly petty as well. You have a player base who for all intents wants to bring an (or more, as some players have multiple ultimate weapons) item up to snuff for current content, but because the means to make such an upgrade path is conceivably already accessible to the player base you won't release a small insight into the process?

For all intents and purposes it could be the need to obtain Job Master status on a job that can use the weapon and then be able to dump x amount of Job Points into a system similar to the Goblin Pot in Reisenjima. If this was the case, this at least gives players direction to use their time AND maximize current limited time campaigns such as the current CP and EXP boost for chains. (On a side note, I completely believe that this to whatever degree is how the upgrade is going to be implemented, add an item to fetch/KI to get from w/e mob, as otherwise there is no reason at this time to not lock CP from being stored after you hit job master. Just my personal thoughts.) If the upgrade involves obtaining a new item that is determined to drop from newer/older content, just say so...doesn't hurt and in facts it helps reassure player base what route your intentions are headed for the future of the game as well.

Also, considering the fact that afterglow is something everyone who invests the time to go through this top secret process to obtain, maybe outside of just re-working aftermath mechanics on some of the weapon skills you can also implement a more realistic update to the afterglow effect. Instead of being a base 30 second effect bubble, maybe tier the effect like aftermath is implemented. This way it's actually beneficial to players/trusts(if even applicable) and would allow you to overwrite lower level afterglows you may set.

Example: Mythic Afterglow 100tp:+15 attack, 30 sec; 200tp: +30 attack, 1min; 300tp: +45 attack, 1:30min